The War of Winterhold
by BlaketheEpicArgonian
Summary: Three Master Wizards at the College of Winterhold are sent on a routine assignment, but soon it becomes a large scale conflict.
1. Intro

**All rights to Skyrim belong to Bethesda Game Studios I only own my OCs**

** The War of Winterhold**

The Eye of Magnus had been removed, a new Archmage had stepped in, the College of Winterhold was returning to normal, well at least normal as far as magical colleges go, but little did they know danger was on the horizon.

The most interesting thing to happen in months had been the promotion of the new Archmage, and his four master wizards.

These masters over the arcane were in an intense rivalry over who would be next to hold the title of Archmage.

"I'm the obvious choice given that I am a High Elf" said Cyraust "we are naturally the best with magic."

Cyraust was short for an Altmer and his hair was slightly darker than most, but he was a High Elf none the less and he would never pass up the chance to shove that down the throats of anyone else in the room.

"Really now?" Rynaz said "That doesn't exactly worry me it wouldn't be the first time I have overcome racial stereotypes and natural abilities."

Rynaz was right, no one thought a Redguard would ever be so good with magic, but here he was. Rynaz was shorter than most Redguards but still very strong, he was also quite light skinned for a Redguard, some would even mistake him for an Imperial, he had trained to be the first Redguard Archmage and he wouldn't let anyone, man or mer, get in his way especially not this High Elf.

"Now you two should just calm down." Reuben said.

Reuben had always been a simple Breton and not one for conflict. He was short and relatively portly, and everyone was surprised at his promotion to Master Wizard.

"Blaze what do you think about all this?" Reuben said.

The Argonian had been silent during the exchange, preferring to keep to himself, but he was about to be dragged into it, as usual.

Throws-the-Flames was his real name, but everyone called him Blaze. He was a blue Argonian and quite tall with a scar on his nose.

In truth he thought their fighting was petty and worthless, but that didn't stop him from voicing his opinion.

"We all know I'm the obvious choice."

The others fell silent because they knew this was true, his magika pool was larger, his spells more potent, and he knew more spells than each of them, he had been the top of their class, he mastered spells very quickly, and he could even copy spells he saw others cast, and sometimes he even made his own.

They abandoned their argument and went to the matters at hand. They were instructed to go visit the jarl.

When they began their walk through town they were greeted by some of the less than friendly local Nords. They hurled insults at the young mages, especially Cyraust because of his Elven race.

"You freaks should get back to your Daedra worship at the college" they yelled, "especially you, dirty elf."

The Altmer looked as though he had enough "Your all just jealous you filthy, inbred savages!" he yelled.

The Nords just stared at him angrily until one picked up a rock and threw it at the elf, it struck him right in the nose.

"Get him!" the Nord yelled.

Rocks came at him and some of the Nords raised their fists.

Cyraust knew he couldn't kill them and cause an incident, so he cast a teleportation spell and got away.

The other mages went back to the college before they got involved in any trouble.

Cyraust had always been proud of his race and didn't ever want to hear it insulted, but the others knew he would return soon enough.

The remaining masters were called to the Archmage's quarters to speak to him.

Barren was a Dark Elf with a mastery over magic, it was astounding how skillful he was.

He literally radiated magical power. He was the obvious choice for Archmage.

"I have called you all here for a special assignment," he said "as you all know we are seeking to branch out across Skyrim and we finally found a location that may be suitable for our needs."

"That is very good news sir, but what is our assignment?" Rynaz asked.

"I need you three to go to this old ruined fort and make sure it does fully suit our needs and make sure no one else occupies it."

"So we're on guard duty?" Reuben asked.

"If you want to be so blunt, yes, yes you are." Barren said.

Then the three set out on their journey, unaware of the troubles that were about to follow.


	2. The Old Fort

**This chapter is longer and has more to it I am looking forward to reading your reviews on how I can make it better**

The journey to the old fort was long.

The fort was located near the mountains separating Skyrim from Cyrodil.

When the mages finally got there they didn't exactly like what they saw.

"It's almost completely ruined!" Rynaz said.

"Yea, and it's just as cold and snowy as Winterhold," added Reuben.

"Quit complaining, were going to be here at least a week and it's going to be very annoying if you two don't stop right now," Blaze said, "besides at least we have a quiet place away from the Nords to practice our spells."

"Why do we need to practice? We have been on a long journey and need a break." Reuben said.

"There's no time for that we have to protect this place and I want to make sure we're ready to." Blaze said.

"I agree with Reuben we have been traveling for three days, we need rest" said Rynaz.

"besides if we are tired and low on magika when we are attacked we wouldn't stand a chance."

"Fine, you get three hours to rest then I want both of you out here for training." Blaze said.

Three hours later they were all out in the training area casting their spells on dummies.

"We need better training than this," said Blaze "we'll have a sparring match and since my sparring partner is missing I'll just watch you and maybe join in later."

So Rynaz and Reuben took their positions with 40 feet between them, then a spear of ice flew through the air at Reuben who barely countered with a steadfast ward.

"Good to see your reflexes have improved Reuben maybe you will actually win this one," Blaze said.

Reuben shot a bolt of chain lightning at Rynaz, who cast a greater ward to stop it. As the spells flew through the air it seemed as though neither one was taking the advantage.

"Stop. It's my turn to face Rynaz," Blaze said.

They took positions again, this time with Reuben spectating.

Rynaz fired three lightning bolts in quick succession hoping to drain the magika and health of his foe quickly.

Blaze stood his ground and summoned a storm atronach in front of him that absorbed the lightning.

"Never underestimate a conjuration specialist my friend." Blaze said.

Rynaz then used what little knowledge he had of the conjuration school to summon a bound sword in his right hand and then charged with it.

Blaze quickly dispelled his storm atronach and summoned his own bound sword.

They locked blades in the center of the field, then Rynaz said "this is where being a Redguard comes in handy, with my stamina I can easily outlast you."

It seemed as though Blaze had finally lost, but for some reason the lizard got a smirk across his face.

"I think you have for gotten how resourceful I am under pressure" Blaze stated.

"What do you mean? You have both hands on your blade you can't even cast a spell right now." Rynaz said with confusion.

"Look" Blaze simply stated looking to his left.

Rynaz looked over and saw a large Dremora pointing a sword right at him.

"Right before we locked blades I summoned him without you knowing, it was my ace in the hole, because if you try to attack me he attacks, and if you attack him I can easily put my sword in your back." Blaze said.

Rynaz dispelled his blade and said "Well, I guess you win again."

That night they sat by the fire in an old watch tower.

"So what brought you to Skyrim Rynaz?" Reuben asked.

"Well I had always seen mages traveling through Hammerfell when I was a kid, and my parents owned the inn where they would stay, I would always listen to their stories and sometimes I could convince them to teach me a spell or two," Rynaz said, "but one day everything changed."

"What happened?" Reuben asked.

"We'll my dad had borrowed money from the wrong people and he couldn't pay them back so they burned the inn to the ground with my whole family in it, I was the only survivor." Rynaz said with a sigh "but, some good did come of it, I thought I would just inherit the inn when I grew up, but now I was free to do as I pleased, which happened to be magic."

"What about you Reuben?" Rynaz asked.

"Well I grew up in a family of 9 so it was hard growing up, I tried to study magic in what little peace and quiet I got and eventually I got pretty good at it," Reuben said "but eventually I got tired of trying to find the time so I ran away and came to Skyrim."

"What about you Blaze?" Rynaz asked.

The Argonian was sitting in the corner of the room, reading, not wanting to get involved.

"I don't really like to talk about my past" he said.

"well, I have another question, what is in that chest you brought with us? You haven't opened it on the trip or since we got here." Rynaz said.

The mages all turned to look at the relatively large wooden chest on the table.

"It's none of your business what's in there and you better hope you don't have to find out." Blaze said, "now if you'll excuse me I have to store this chest in the basement."

He then picked it up and walked downstairs while the others continued their conversation.

"What do you think he is hiding from us?" Reuben asked.

"I'm not sure, but it is probably for the best if we leave the topic alone." Rynaz said.

A few minutes later they started talking about a strategy on how to best guard the tower.

"We should take shifts sleeping," Blaze said, "we will each have one three hour shift a night, the person on guard duty will take watch on the old watchtower."

They all agreed this was a good plan.

"well who takes the first shift?" Rynaz asked.

"I will" Reuben answered.

"And I will take the second one" Blaze stated.

"well I will go ahead and layout my bedroll in the basement," Rynaz said.

Reuben's shift was uneventful and went by quite fast, then he went down to the first floor and woke Blaze.

Blaze's shift started around 1 in the morning and all seemed normal, two hours later he was just trying to keep himself awake.

His eyes were almost closed when something struck the tower knocking over his chair, quickly Reuben came to the roof, woken by the impact.

"What happened?" Reuben asked.

"I don't know" Blaze answered, "but whatever it is, it isn't good."

**Thank you to anyone who reads and/or reviews this**


	3. You Can't Escape the Past

Blaze and Reuben looked out over the valley, from the watchtower to get a look at the attackers, but all they saw was a large burst of blue light.

"Brace yourself!" Blaze shouted.

The spell cast by their unknown enemy hit the tower shaking it violently.

The two mages quickly went downstairs, "Did you get a good look at them?" Blaze shouted over the noise outside

"All I saw was a large company of High Elves," Reuben responded.

Blaze thought of the only place you would find a large group of angry High Elves.

"The Thalmor!? What are they doing here?" Blaze asked

"I don't know, but I thought I saw…." Reuben trailed off

"What! What did you see?" Blaze demanded

"It's nothing probably just my mind playing tricks on me." Reuben said, not looking too sure of himself.

"What do we do?" Reuben asked

"The only thing we can do, stand and fight," Blaze answered.

Blaze went out on the balcony preparing two conjuration spells of his own design, he cast them and two large figures appeared in the training area.

One appeared to be a large, stone golem, but the other was an even larger, black skeleton with burning red eyes and a large axe that appeared to be made out of dragon bones.

"What are those things?" Reuben asked

"The stone golem is a special form of atronach I made, it can't use any elemental magic, but it can absorb all forms of magic to heal itself, in fact it feeds off of magical energy," Blaze said,"the other one was made as an anti-dragon spell its simply called a dragon slayer."

The two of them went out to face the attackers.

"They out number us at least fifty-to-one." Reuben said grimly.

"Yes, but I doubt they have faced Master Wizards before," Blaze said.

They began casting their strongest spells into the crowd of Thalmor, but for every one killed two more would replace them.

"There is too many, you distract them I'll wake Rynaz." Blaze commanded.

The Argonian knew what he had to do. "_No I left that life behind me," _he thought to himself.

He made his way to the small trapdoor that led to the basement only to find it covered by a collapsed wall.

"Well I guess I have to use my telekinesis spell to lift it."

He raised both hands and concentrated as hard as he could, focusing his magika, but that was difficult with the tower collapsing around him.

Outside Reuben was in a lot of trouble.

He was surrounded, Blaze's spells were getting weaker as the fight dragged on, as was his own atronach.

His wards were barely blocking the spells of the Thalmor, and his own fire balls were getting smaller and weaker.

Then everything, suddenly and with seemingly no reason, went silent.

Not a spell was cast, not a summoning, not a ward, and no destruction magic.

Then one lone High Elf stepped forward from the crowd.

"No, it can't be." Reuben said.

Back inside Blaze finally cleared the door.

"_That took longer than I expected,"_ he thought to himself.

He opened the door and climbed down the ladder only to find Rynaz was still asleep.

He kicked him in the side,

"What's going on?" Rynaz asked sleepily

"How are you still asleep? The whole place is shaking." Blaze asked

"I thought it was just an earthquake I guess," Rynaz retorted, rubbing his eyes.

"We're under attack, get ready and go outside." Blaze commanded

"Fine, fine," Rynaz said, going up the ladder.

Blaze, now alone, walked over to the large wooden chest in the corner of the room.

"_It's the only way, it doesn't matter if I like it or not I have to help."_

Outside Rynaz saw the Thalmor encircling Reuben.

He tried desperately to see into the circle.

"_Is he dead?" _ The Redguard wondered, "_no they would be attacking the fort if he was, but what has them all fixated on this unremarkable young Breton?"_

Inside the keep basement the Argonian was preparing for the worst.

He pulled out the key to the chest and put it in the lock.

"_I can't run from the past forever"_ he thought.

He turned the key, unlocking the chest and pulled out a helmet, but not just any helm one of Daedric design.

He donned the Daedric armor, "_it feels heavier than before," _Blaze thought "_but then again it has been a while._

Rynaz walked around the circle trying to find entrance.

"_At least whatever is going on in there, they don't seem to be attacking." _Rynaz thought. "Well I don't see any other way to do this, so here goes nothing."

Rynaz backed up a few steps, stretched his legs, and got ready.

He charged at the circle as quick as he could and jumped, souring over their heads, but once he was in the circle he froze in shock.

Inside the Argonian wondered to himself what his friends would think if they knew how many people he had killed with the Daedric sword in his hand, or with the Daedric bow on his back.

He climbed the ladder and prepared for the worst, then he kicked open the door.

He was surprised to see the elves gathered in a huddle.

"_What is going on here?"_ he wondered.

He pulled out his bow and nocked an arrow and killed the elf nearest to him, but the other elves didn't even bother to look.

He killed three more elves with his bow before realizing he needed to see what was going on in that circle.

He put his bow on his back, looked at his sheathed sword almost as though making sure it was still there, then he pushed his way into the crowd and through it and put his hand on the handle of his sword ready to unsheathe it.

He went to the center of the circle, pulled out his sword and, grabbed the High Elf who was in the center by the neck. He readied his sword to stab, but he stopped. He took a good look at the man he was choking and stammered, dumbfounded, "Cyraust?"


	4. The Betrayal and the Journey Home

**Please review and tell me what you think so far. Yesterday I updated the earlier chapters, changing the look of them and correcting a few minor mistakes.**

"Cyraust!?" Blaze stammered once more, "Why are you with the Thalmor? Why are you attacking us?"

"It's simple, really." Cyraust replied coldly, "I wanted revenge on the Nords of Winterhold and the college.

"Why would you want revenge on the college?" Rynaz said, still frozen in shock.

"I simply hate all that it stands for." Cyraust said, "Altmer are the only race that should have the right to use magic, not any of these lesser races, especially those filthy Nords."

Blaze tightened his grip around the High Elf's throat.

"Give me one reason not to impale you with this sword." Blaze commanded.

"Besides the fact you are surrounded by Thalmor soldiers?" Cyraust responded.

"You think I care?" Blaze retorted, then he slashed his blade at the closest Thalmor, killing him, then he repositioned his sword at Cyraust's throat.

"Blaze, you can't just kill him without remorse." Reuben said.

"Fine, Cyraust I will let you live this time, but if you attack the college or anyone in it again, I won't be this merciful." Blaze said to the elf releasing his choke hold.

"You should have killed me while you had the chance." Cyraust said, stepping behind his troops.

"My forces are gathering in The Pale as we speak, ready to attack the college." Cyraust said.

He turned to his troops "Kill them all, and do it quickly, don't let them hinder our attack." Cyraust said, before teleporting away.

"It's okay I've been preparing for them to attack." Reuben said, before pulling out a scroll.

"What spell is that?" Rynaz said.

"Mass paralysis." Reuben responded, casting the powerful spell.

"We should run before they regain mobility." Reuben said.

"But we would just have to deal with them later." Blaze responded, "I have another idea."

Blaze then started to cast one of the master destruction spells, blizzard.

The Thalmor were trapped in it continually taking damage.

"Now let's get to Winterhold as fast as possible." Rynaz said.

And so they began their long journey back, it would take about three days to get there, so they just had to hope they could get there before the attack started to warn the Archmage.

That night they set up camp and started talking around the campfire.

"So the question on everyone's mind is where did you get that sweet Daedric armor?" Rynaz said.

"Well here's my story." Blaze said.

"I was born in Black Marsh, but when I was young my family moved to Morrowind after the Second Arnesian War. The Dark Elves of course were not too happy with my family moving there, still bitter about the war."

"They hired the Morang Tong to kill my family." Blaze continued, one day I came home and found my two siblings and my mother dead on the floor of our home. I went into the kitchen and saw my father get stabbed by three Dark Elves."

"I ran away, I used my waterbreathing to escape underwater." Blaze said, looking down at his sword. "I felt so helpless, I just wanted to be strong enough to fight for myself."

Blaze continued his tale, "I grew up and became a mercenary….. and I killed hundreds of people for money, including the Daedra worshiper who I took this armor from."

"Then one day I realized I went too far, when I killed twenty of my own people." Blaze looked down sadly, "Dark Elves hired me to kill all the Argonians that lived in their small town, and I did it."

"It felt so wrong, I was so guilty I ran from my home and across the border to Skyrim," Blaze continued, "I went to the college and decided I would become Archmage and finally be respectable."

"Now we should get to sleep because we have a long journey ahead of us." Reuben said.

"Before we do get to sleep, you should know you really saved our lives today Reuben." Rynaz said.

"Yea, that was quick thinking." Blaze said, "but where did you get the scroll?"

"I actually stole it from my family before I ran away from home." Reuben answered.

"Well we should be getting to sleep." Rynaz said.

The next morning they started walking again, a few hours later Rynaz started getting suspicious.

"Did you hear that?" Rynaz asked.

"It was probably a rabbit or a fox." Reuben said.

"No it sounded too big to be a fox or rabbit." Rynaz said.

"It was probably a deer then," Blaze said unworriedly, "but if it makes you feel better I will cast a detect life spell."

Small figures of animals and a few larger four legged creatures began to glow as he cast the spell.

"See? Just a few deer." Blaze said.

"Ok I guess you're right." Rynaz said.

They kept walking for a few hours before Rynaz stopped the group.

"Stop. We are being followed." Rynaz whispered.

"Why are you whispering?" Reuben asked.

Rynaz motioned for them to be silent as he quietly cast bound sword.

He then walked over to a bush and stabbed it, then blood spurted out of the bush.

"What is going on?" Blaze asked.

"We've been followed ever since we left, I noticed it in the forest, but when you cast the detect life spell I thought it was nothing." Rynaz said, "but I still heard them and I was right."

"Why didn't the spell show them?" Reuben asked.

"Because we are being followed by something that isn't human, they saw us as tired travelers that would satisfy their hunger." Rynaz said.

"They're the cult of Namira trying to eat us?" Reuben asked.

Blaze looked at Reuben wondering how he knew of the man-eating cult of Daedra worshipers who served the darkest, most vile Daedric Prince.

Rynaz looked at the forest around them and said, "No, they are a ravenous hoard of Vampires, after our magic infused blood."

**Thank you for reading, and I would really appreciate some more reviews on what you think or how I can improve.**


	5. Vampires and Flames

**In the following weeks I may not be able to post every day like I have, because I will be very busy.**

The mages looked all around themselves to try to find the vampires that were apparently following them, they could be surrounded and not even realize it.

Blaze took a spell in his hand.

"What spell is that?" Reuben asked.

"Detect Dead." Blaze responded, "So we can see what we are up against."

He cast the spell, showing five figures around them.

"There is not very many at least." Reuben said.

"I think you are forgetting what we are fighting." Rynaz said, "Some vampires may be weak and easy to kill, but others are brutally strong."

Rynaz continued, "Some can drain all your blood in seconds, some can even change into a more powerful form."

Blaze looked at his ally and friend Rynaz, he thought it was strange that Reuben knew about the cult of Namira, but Rynaz seemed to be an expert in vampires.

"But its daytime, shouldn't they be dying out here in the sunlight." Reuben asked.

"Not Skyrim vampires, they are only weakened by it," Rynaz said, "but not weakened enough to let our guard down."

"We need to get to Winterhold, we can't be slowed down by these blood suckers." Blaze said.

"We need to use fire magic, it is one of their only weaknesses." Rynaz said.

The three mages prepared for the worst.

Blaze summoned two flame atronachs, then he readied a fire spell and his sword.

Reuben cast an armor spell, then readied his fire spells.

Rynaz summoned a sword and readied a fire spell.

"Come out we know you're here, you vile creatures of the night." Rynaz commanded.

The five vampires came out of the dense forest.

"Why do they always have to fight back? Why can we never find easy prey?" a young Wood Elf vampire asked.

"Don't worry I will make this as quick as possible." The largest vampire stated. This large Nordic vampire was wearing robes that made him look like royalty, so the mages presumed he was their leader.

The large Nord changed his form into a large bat like creature.

"Just because you are the only vampire lord here doesn't mean you have to show off." Said an Imperial vampire.

Rynaz quickly drove his sword into the nearest vampire, an elderly High Elf, before charging at the Imperial vampire.

Reuben unleashed a volley of firebolt spells at the Wood Elf and another Khajiit vampire.

Blaze sent his atronachs at the vampire lord, but the monster killed both of them with quick strikes from his claws which caused the atronachs to explode in fire sending the vampire alight.

Reuben burned the two vampires to a crisp with his repeated firebolts. So he turned his attention to the vampire lord.

The vampire used a powerful ice magic to put himself out, and also used ice spells to block Reuben's on coming fire spells.

Rynaz pulled his sword out of the Imperial he had just slain and threw the summoned blade at the vampire lord.

The blade pierced the back of the vampire lord. The large vampire collapsed to the ground, dead.

They continued traveling and that night set up camp once more.

"Where did you learn so much about vampires?" Blaze asked Rynaz.

"Well before I joined the college I tried to learn magic from other places, one of which happened to be a group of vampire hunters who taught me everything I know." Rynaz responded.

"And what about you Reuben how did you knw about the cult of Namira?" Blaze said, somewhat accusingly.

Reuben looked at his friends, quite scared.

"When I traveled across the border to Skyrim I was captured by them, held for a feast as they called it, but before it started the Vigilants of Stendarr raided the place and killed them before freeing us." Reuben responded.

"Now let's get to sleep we should reach Winterhold by late evening tomorrow." Rynaz said.

The next morning they set out. It started getting much colder as they went deeper into the Pale.

"I just hope we get there in time." Blaze said, "there is very few guards in Winterhold and I doubt the local Nords would help us in any way."

"I don't know the Nords may hate the Thalmor more than they hate us." Rynaz said.

"I wouldn't count on it, besides they might just wait for the battle to end before attacking the weakened winner." Reuben said.

"Well at least this is happening now instead of a few years ago, back then we wouldn't stand a chance. Blaze said.

He was right, less than ten years ago there was a great crisis in the college and during this time there was less than twenty mages at the college including teachers.

After the crisis involving the Eye of Magnus the college went through three Archmages before Barren became Archmage.

When Barren became Archmage the college received a sudden influx of students, now the college had about one hundred mage students and twenty five non students including teachers, Master Wizards and the Archmage.

The group of mages walked along talking about the others at the college.

"I miss teaching the younger students magic." Blaze said, "They were always ready to learn and some of them started to get very good at it."

"I miss reading all the books there," Reuben said, "I had gone through about half of the library."

"I miss- Rynaz started before being cut off.

"We all know who you miss Rynaz." Blaze said.

"Yea, and I'm sure Lana misses you to." Reuben said.

Lana was a young Nord girl that Rynaz spent most of his time with at the college, in fact as long as they were both at the college they never left each other's side.

"Well I guess you guys read my mind." Rynaz joked.

Blaze was the first to walk over the hill and see Winterhold.

"This is terrible." Blaze said.

"What is?" Reuben asked.

"We are too late the battle has already started." Blaze said, looking at the smoke rising from the college.

**Thank you to anyone who reads and/or reviews, I'm almost finished with this and I'm ready to start on my next fanfiction.**


	6. Chaos at the College

**I'm sorry it took so long, but I have been busy and I will be busy for the next few weeks. This story should be done soon, I don't intend for it to be long, but my next fanfiction will be much longer.**

They watched the flames rising from the college.

"How did they get here so fast? Cyraust said they were in the Pale, how did they march through Winterhold and get here so quickly?" Reuben said.

"We should have gone directly through Winterhold instead of going through the Pale we would have got here much sooner." Rynaz said.

"It doesn't matter, we couldn't warn them so we have to help them." Blaze said.

They rushed through the town and up to the college, but they were horrified at what they saw. The bodies of mages and Thalmor alike strewn on the bridge, and some in the icy water below them.

"They don't know we are coming, we can sneak up on them. We can fight much better than the other mages, especially when they are tired from fighting." Rynaz said.

They went through the courtyard of the college picking off what few Thalmor they saw.

"Judging from the foot prints in the snow and the bodies on the bridge, it is likely that the Thalmor outnumber the entire college ten to one." Reuben stated.

"So that would mean they have around a thousand troops. Be prepared for whatever you are about to see." Blaze said before opening the large wooden doors.

They saw around twelve young novice mages surrounded by the elves, using all their knowledge of magic to cast a large shield around themselves, but they looked tired and worn by overcasting.

The master wizards ran in casting any spell they thought was powerful enough to relieve the young mages of their plight. Fire, ice, and lightning alike flew into the circle, catching the High Elves by surprise. The fighting was over quicker than it started, and the young mages were freed.

"What happened here novice?" Rynaz asked a young Bosmer.

"Some of the adept mages were practicing on the top of the college walls and saw them coming." The Wood Elf answered, "The Archmage ordered all mages at less than adept level to get inside and told the apprentices to watch the door."

A young imperial standing next to him continued the story.

"The fighting on the bridge was fierce and went on for over an hour." The Imperial recalled, "but then the mages began to give way, so the Archmage called them back into the college, but only about fifteen of the original thirty five came back."

A small Khajiit spoke up and continued off of what his friend said.

"The door held for a while, but as it began to give way the younger teachers started to lead the novices up to the top of the tower." The cat said, "but some of the braver students such as us came down to help, but when we arrived we found the mages and the elves had taken their fighting to other parts of the college, some went outside, some went to the midden, and others to the living quarters, but we were stuck here and lost three other novices before you arrived."

The Wood Elf who started the story continued it.

"We were outnumbered, the fighting on the bridge had left the Thalmor with eight hundred soldiers of their original one thousand, but we were still fighting against ten to one numbers given the twenty we lost." He said, "We wanted to help the ones on the top of the tower, because we saw a large force headed up there, but we were trapped until you came along."

"Then we need to hurry. Four of you go to the midden with Rynaz, four with Reuben to the living quarters, and four with me to save the novices if we are not too late." Blaze said.

Rynaz took the Khajiit, along with a Dunmer, an orc, and an Argonian down to the midden. They fought all the way to the atronach forge and found the High Elves being attacked by around twenty Dremora, and a group of 10 conjurers, ranging from apprentice to master skill level, lead by the conjuration teacher Bjorn Frostmoth , a middle aged Nord.

They helped pick off what was left of the High Elves and reunited with the college conjurers.

"We need your help Bjorn." Rynaz said.

"I know, but my students are tired and I have already lost seven students." Bjorn responded, "but we will help however we can."

Reuben's group consisted of the young Imperial, a Redguard, a Nord, and a High Elf. Reuben found the hall of attainment in utter chaos. The destruction and alteration students were led by Ralis the Bosmer destruction teacher.

The group rushed in helping however they could, the Imperial using restoration to heal the wounded, the Nord enchanting items for the other mages, and the others fighting the threat.

They finally over took the opponent because of new found hope in their new arrivals. Then Reuben turned to Ralis.

"What happened? Where are the other teachers?" Reuben asked.

"The alteration and restoration teachers were killed in the fighting on the bridge. The conjuration teacher went to the midden to fight. And the illusion teacher went to the top of the tower to help protect the novices along with two master level wizards." Ralis replied.

"Which master level wizards?" Reuben asked.

"The Khajiit J'zera and that Nord girl Lana." Ralis answered.

"_If something happens to Lana Rynaz would be devastated." _Reuben thought.

Blaze and his group consisted of the Bosmer, a Breton, a Nord, and a Dunmer. They rushed to the top of the college to rescue the novices.

"Where is Archmage Barren?" Blaze asked.

"I think he teleported to the top to assist the novices." The Wood Elf answered.

They made it to the roof only to find around two hundred Altmer being fought back at once by the powerful spells of the Archmage.

It was amazing that this one man was fighting off two hundred well trained soldiers, but he was Archmage for a reason.

Blaze and the novices watched in awe as he took down wave after wave of Thalmor. He didn't even think to help, he didn't notice how tired the Archmage was, and he didn't know what was about to happen.

The Archmage's shield wavered for only a heartbeat, but in that moment an elven arrow went right into Barren's spine and he collapsed on the tower.

Filled with rage Blaze unleashed a huge magical inferno burning around half of the High Elves to death, injuring others, and causing the others to run in fear.

Blaze sat next to the dying Archmage and heard his final words.

"You must protect the college. You are now taking my place as Archmage, so protect these students with your life." Barren said, before his eyes closed for the last time.

**Thank you to anyone who reads and/or reviews I hope you like the story, but it is almost over. However it may take I while for me to finish, as I have been busy as of late.**


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